Redan 2009 publicerades forskning om jordens planetära gränser, nio områden som har styrt jordens ekosystem och stabilitet i över 10 000 år – bland annat utsläpp av växthusgaser, ozonlagret, skogar och biologisk mångfald.
Fyra av dessa gränser har redan överskridits, och det är människan som är orsaken.
Nu visar ny forskning, som publicerats i Enviromental Science & Technolohy att vi passerat en femte gräns – ”nya kemiska substanser”. Det innebär att människans utsläpp av kemiska substanser har varit snabbare de senaste 50 åren än någonsin tidigare i historien och även påverkat planeten.
- Most are emissions from industries, but it can also be substances from a landfill that ends up in the groundwater, soft plastics in your home that are absorbed by the body or particles from our car tires that leak into nature, says Linn Persson, researcher at SEI and co-author of the report.
Difficult to measure chemical emissions
There is no good way to measure all these substances as many of them are uncontrolled.
- When it comes to climate change, for example, it is measurable in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
That way we can not measure the chemical emissions, says Linn Persson.
The researchers have instead focused on the use of chemicals and emissions today and see that these two increase much faster than we have the opportunity to control.
Researchers hope for a roof
- Therefore, we can see that we have passed what is our safety zone.
No one knows exactly how we and the planet are affected, but we are already seeing major negative consequences.
The research can hopefully start a process to regulate and control emissions.
- Maybe this can lead us to now start thinking about whether we should set a ceiling for how much new chemicals we should release on the market globally, and how large volumes are reasonable.
Just as we did for carbon dioxide, says Linn Persson.
In the clip, the researcher talks about the consequences of the rampant emissions.